Well was doing my shocks,struts and rear diff today...

And I have the cam tower leak the whole length of my valve cover... never seen a drop of oil on the ground after 17 years of this thing being in the family.. what is the trick todo it without pulling the front cover? (Former ASE mechanic here so I like my shortcuts lol)

BTW Bilstien 4600's + Rear Gab Bushings + KYB Mounts
Valvoline Synth Rear Diff Fluid

truck is getting some much deserved love @ 130k I inherited from my father with some deferred maint on it

 

Some degreaser, a few rags, and fender well liners to keep it out of sight...

Ok, I'm kidding. Kind of. The gasket often weeps but doesn't leak - such as you are able to see the leak but have never seen a drop on the floor. If you clean it up and then monitor it for the a few months, you should be able to determine how much it is leaking. As I understand it, the repair is fairly intensive for a "gasket" (IIRC, it's special Toyota tube gasket and not an pre-made gasket); most folks opt for continued monitoring over replacement unless other work is needed. I am guilty of that... which goes agains my natural inclination to fix things before they are broken. But at 200k+ miles, I've yet to see a drop of oil on the ground or see any appreciable oil consumption between oil changes, even when I (foolishly) ran 10k mile OCI's. So I considered it a weep.

I don't think you are able to reseal it without pulling off the front cover. However, with your background, you may have a better chance of figuring something out. Perhaps someone else has some ideas, but I don't recall seeing any shortcuts to this repair, unfortunately...

 

yes I am the preventive maintenance nazi... my motto is usually if it doesnt leak on the ground its not leaking, BUT I plan on keeping this long term as it was passed down and who wants to spend a 70k on a new truck when this one runs and drives as new

I guess I will clean it up along the bottoms and glance in there from time to time (doesnt get driven much either prob a couple thousand a year if that. things going to last forever literally

 

As long as those few miles are 'blow out the cobwebs' freeway miles. We've seen troubles with these trucks if run short local trips, only a few miles each year.

 

Until you see oil on the ground AND have to start adding oil between changes, I'd leave it alone.

 

Moisture/Sludge Issues?

 

This.

 

Yup. And the soft parts don't stay supple. As some OEM parts for our trucks are getting discontinued, gotta preserve everything we can.

 

Not to worried about sludge, I check my cap and oil religiously as I am aware as a former tech of the downfalls of short trips.. I have a couple gallons of seafoam in my personal shop aswell to combat and watch it as its draining I think it is actaully going the other way on my truck (timing chain tensioners had some noise when I got it out of long term storage) it has cleared up even after sitting for 4-5 day stretches when it usually appears when they arn't pumped up and am running only WIX/OE Filters on her

FYI the oil cap test is always pretty good and shine a light in, if you see that milky stuff its time for a nice long cruise

 

Was looking at it today, def not dripping on exhaust shields (was putting last strut on and checking my balljoints/sways) I have noticed the truck kinda smells like a bad cat sometimes (has aftermarket on one side my father had put on there)